'Wrong contact info by patients hampering follow-up treatment'

New Delhi: While the Delhi government tries hard to eliminate viral, bacterial and vector-borne diseases, such as leprosy and dengue, at its hospitals and provide patients with improved medical facilities, patients failing to submit or submitting wrong personal contact details is proving to be a serious challenge for doctors.

According to government doctors, many patients are providing fake/wrong contact details to health officials, which is hampering the process of providing them with proper medical follow-up.

According to an official at LNJP Hospital, such problems were earlier only seen at more prominent hospitals, such as AIIMS and Safdarjung.

However, now this trend has been started in the smaller Delhi government hospitals as well, he said, adding that many patients do not submit their personal details, including their phone number.

Another official at LNJP Hospital said that a patient's personal information system is crucial and if information recorded on the system is wrong, officials feel as if they have been cheated.

Even as many doctors are facing a harrowing time, they maintain that only awareness among the patients can nip their problems in the bud.

Doctors at LNJP Hospital said that patients coming for surgery are often in a serious condition and coming to the hospital to just check the dates is a arduous task for anyone.

As a result, junior doctors keep a tab on the waiting patients by contacting them on mobile.

"However, normally, we found that around 20-30 per cent of mentioned contact numbers are switched off or out of coverage area," said a doctor.

Even doctors at the Delhi State Cancer Institute said a similar trend is being noticed. "Somehow, we did not find any concrete reasons behind these episodes," said a doctor.

Every year, around 2,000- 2,500 new patients get registered for leprosy treatment and are provided treatment for around six months to a year.

"If any patient leaves or does not continue with the treatment programme, our team will follow them to their residence," an official said.

"But, in follow up cases, our team has found that around 40 per cent of the patients' contact details are wrong. During introspection, the department found that patients had given wrong or fake details," he added